DAVID Cameron has navigated his way through a sticky start to the year, yet many Tory MPs remain in a sullen mood.

The threatened Parliamentary rebellions over Europe and immigration during the past fortnight fizzled out with little lasting damage to the Prime Minister’s authority, largely thanks to spoiling tactics by the Tory whips.

Rebel MPs are beginning to accept that while they dislike the Prime Minister, there is no viable alternative leader to take them into next year’s general election.

It is time to knuckle down and concentrate on the coming battle with Labour.

But while public loyalty is the order of the moment, plotting continues in the Tory backbench cabals.

The Prime Minister hoped that his promise of an In/Out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union and his flurry of measures to curb benefit tourism would placate his critics within the party.

Unfortunately for him the Tory Right are an unforgiving bunch.

“People shouldn’t underestimate how much Cameron is disliked within the Parliamentary party,” one backbencher on the Conservative Right told me. “He has only moved on to issues such as immigration and Europe because he has been forced to. The problem is he doesn’t really believe in anything.”

Tory rebel attention is now focused on plotting a leadership coup immediately after the next general election, I hear.

It is time to knuckle down and concentrate on the coming battle with Labour

The overwhelming view among MPs is that the Tories cannot secure a majority under the current skewed boundary system and that the country is heading for another hung Parliament.

Mr Cameron’s enemies within believe that the days after the poll will be the time to strike.

“We could live with another coalition with the Lib Dems, we just want someone other than Cameron in charge of it,” one MP involved in the scheming said.

I understand that Tory Rightwingers are pressing Graham Brady, chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee of backbenchers, to introduce new rules that will ensure any future coalition deal with the Lib Dems will have to be put to a secret ballot of all Tory MPs.

Such a vote would give MPs a chance to deliver a fatal blow to their leader’s authority without fear of wrecking their future ministerial careers by publicly declaring their disloyalty.

It means the next general election could be immediately followed by the chaos of coalition wrangling punctuated by a Tory leadership contest.

George Osborne, whose reputation among his colleagues and party activists is soaring as the economic recovery accelerates, is widely expected to be a candidate. But many rebels are hoping that Boris Johnson will be back in Parliament by then and perfectly placed to throw his baggy woollen hat into the ring for a tilt at the leadership job he has always coveted.

Boris Johnson used the London Tube strike as an opportunity to demand tougher curbs on trade unions [PA]

This week, the Tory London Mayor was again raising policy ideas calculated to go down well with the Tory Right, calling for a further cut in the top rate of income tax and using a Tube strike as an opportunity to demand tougher curbs on trade unions.

Downing Street insists that Mr Cameron is working “flat out” for a Tory majority at the next election and is not prepared to be deflected by talk of another coalition.

But senior figures in the party concede that his failure to consult backbenchers properly about the Prime Minister’s 2010 deal with Nick Clegg is a grievance among MPs that has caused lasting damage.

One senior Tory source said: “It would have to be done in a different way. It would be better for both sides, the Government and backbenchers, if there is more extensive consultation.

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“It would give MPs a sense of ownership of the Government. There is a recognition that has been a problem in this Parliament. Many Tory backbenchers have not had a sense of ownership and have been more inclined to rebel.”

Party chiefs are already giving serious thought to how to handle the situation in the event of another hung Parliament next year.

But agreeing to a secret ballot on a future coalition deal is likely to be a step too far for Mr Cameron, particularly if plotters see the vote as a mechanism for ultimately forcing him out of his job.

Mr Cameron is already facing a gruelling 15 months of campaigning with the next general election on the horizon. The danger is that the real fight for his political life will truly begin once the votes have been counted.